The present invention relates to the wetting of a powdery material to facilitate future handling and, more particularly, to providing of moisture through the injection of low-pressure steam into an accumulated powdery material such as a baghouse dust.
Disposal of powdery material such as baghouse dust presents special difficulties due to the extremely dry and fine powdery nature of such materials. Landfills are reluctant to accept such materials for ready landfilling due the generation of fugitive dust during treatment and the application of such materials into the landfill. In the case of dust which can have potentially hazardous characteristics due to the presence of heavy metals such as metal melting baghouse dust, the problem becomes even more severe. The exposure of baghouse dust handling workers and workers at the treatment facility or at the landfill becomes a concern due to the possible exposure to metals which may be present in the melting baghouse dust.
It is desirable to decrease the dusty quality or nature of such collected baghouse materials prior to their handling or treatment and especially prior to their application in a landfill. Due to the extremely small particulate nature of such powdery materials, an ordinary application of water is generally ineffective because water runs off the surface of such dust before it penetrates within the dust to provide proper moisturizing throughout the accumulated dust. Penetration by such materials as water is fractional into the depth of the accumulated material in a collection device such as a roll off hopper. However, very powdery and dry materials tend to loose their dusty quality after prolonged exposure to highly humid air or water vapor. Water vapor in particular seems to penetrate powder in a pervasive manner and once the vapor penetrates and is distributed throughout the powdery material, the dusty nature of the material is greatly reduced. Further, the condensed moisture seems to be retained by the dusty material for a long period of time to allow future handling without undue generation of fugitive dust.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing moisture to a containerized powdery material.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for providing moisture to a dry powdery material accumulated in a container by the injection of low-pressure steam into the powdery material.